In recent years there has been a fair amount of debate in Italy about regional differences in student achievements at the end of the high school cycle (Esame di Stato). In particular, concerns have been expressed about the performance of students in Southern Italy, higher than the national average, while standardized tests of learning outcomes point to a very different situation. The paper investigates this issue using simple statistical methods to disentangle the geographical area effect from the effects of other characteristics. The main finding is that a regional effect is present in final grades, but it is more important in the area of Central Italy rather than in Southern Italy.